Telehealth
Our farming readers know that rural Australians don’t just think about the weather for agricultural purposes; they also need to factor in the rain when they need a stable internet connection. We at the SARRAH National Office have had direct experience of this as we connect with our remote workers in rural locations across three states. The quality of our video meetings is definitely affected by the weather.

Our members are telling us that they have pivoted to telehealth service delivery with varying levels of success. This is a game-changer for some and will theoretically increase access to and choice of service providers in areas where providers are thin on the ground in rural areas. For other providers, the quality of the internet connection has been a major barrier to delivering services via this modality.

So how have health consumers managed the switch to telehealth? Accessing health services via telehealth assumes that the person accessing the service has the hardware, infrastructure and capacity to do so. This also assumes that the person has the space in their home for privacy to engage in telehealth. We know that many rural and remote Australians continue to struggle with access to reliable internet connections. We know that many of our most vulnerable households don’t have the means to engage in telehealth; for that you need access to a connected telephone/internet and devices to support telehealth. So does telehealth highlight the underlying vulnerabilities for socioeconomically disadvantaged groups further?

Looking at the MBS data for frequently billed items for allied health, it appears this may be the case. When we look at the break down of how services are accessed we can see that the overwhelming majority (94.52% to be exact) of allied health services for people with chronic health conditions during the month of April were provided face to face. Of the 24,660 telehealth sessions delivered by AHPs to people with chronic disease over the same period, 68% were via the telephone. Does this suggest a lack of basic infrastructure to support video consultations? The federal government recommends that telehealth should be provided via a videoconference platform unless this is not possible. Why was this not possible for 68% of the sessions delivered to people with chronic disease?

This picture will continue to unfold as we see data released from private health funds and the NDIS as we know that there are many other areas of telehealth that have been core business for allied health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chronic Disease
The introduction of additional MBS items in late March demonstrated a commitment from the Federal government to ensure all Australian’s had the opportunity to maintain access to primary health services. Allied health professionals are vital in the management of chronic health conditions. Allied health professionals work to improve health literacy and keep people well and out of hospital. The MBS data demonstrates a disturbing trend in access to services during the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020 we saw a 31% drop in the number of MBS claims made for the provision of allied health services in the management of chronic disease compared to the same period last year. Where are these patients? How are their conditions being managed at this challenging and isolating time?

SARRAH has been working with our colleagues of the Australian Allied Health Leadership Forum (AAHLF) to raise awareness with the Commonwealth of the need to prepare for a surge in demand for rehabilitation and post-acute care services for both COVID and non-COVID patients. Currently this area is not well understood by government, particularly those activities that occur in primary health settings, and funding for rehabilitation that happens outside the hospital setting is largely left to private health insurers and third-party payers. AAHLF is calling for the government to take action to manage a surge in demand for services to the same level as the acute and mental health response has been. If left unmanaged we may anticipate that the disparity in health outcomes for socioeconomically disadvantaged groups will only widen.

Stay well, everyone.

Cath

SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice
As remote working becomes the new norm, telehealth is more popular than ever. SARRAH is ready to support allied health professionals navigate telehealth. To find further info or join our SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice email sarrah@sarrah.org.au or visit our dedicated telehealth resource page here.

SARRAH Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway
COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how we do business and highlighted how allied health can adapt to thrive. An Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway grant can support you in recruiting or retaining an early career professional to future-proof your business by capability in emerging areas like telehealth. The overarching goal of the Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway strategy (AHRGP strategy) is to improve health outcomes for rural and remote consumers through increasing access to a highly skilled allied health workforce and enhancing opportunities for multi-disciplinary care in rural healthcare teams. Applying is simple and will help you put the right foot forward in this new era. Visit https://sarrah.org.au/ahrgp to learn more and apply.

Tickets are selling fast for our next webinar. Numbers are limited, so get in quick!

Webinar recording of "Experiences and Outcomes of Rural Generalist Trainees in QLD, NSW and TAS" now available!

On Thursday 19 March a group of Allied Health Rural Generalist trainees presented summaries of their service development projects. You can catch the recording here.

Current Job VacanciesSenior Clinical Podiatrist - SA Health - Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network
The Senior Clinical Podiatrist is an experienced clinician who applies significant clinical and leadership expertise to the development, delivery and continuous improvement of quality Podiatry services appropriate to the rural and remote context. Operating within a multi-disciplinary service context, the Clinical Senior Podiatrist upholds professional standards and provides complex clinical and consultancy Podiatry services across the Riverland Mallee Coorong. For more information visit our website.

Physiotherapist – Katherine Physio - Katherine
Rural Workforce Agency Northern Territory (RWA NT) are partnering with Katherine Physio to find a Physiotherapist to join their passionate Katherine based team. Katherine Physio is a community based practice who work hard to educate their patients on their condition and empower them with the tools to assist self-management. For more information visit our website.

Occupational Therapist - Top End Health Service - Darwin/Palmerston
Provision and co-ordination of clinical Occupational Therapy (OT) Services at the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) and Palmerston Regional Hospital as well as specific leadership, supervision/mentorship and education to directly reporting staff, as well as other professionals within their own team and/or across disciplines throughout the Top End Health Service (TEHS). Advanced clinical experience in any of the following areas, Paediatrics, Hand Therapy, or Surgical. For more information visit our website.

Telehealth
Our farming readers know that rural Australians don’t just think about the weather for agricultural purposes; they also need to factor in the rain when they need a stable internet connection. We at the SARRAH National Office have had direct experience of this as we connect with our remote workers in rural locations across three states. The quality of our video meetings is definitely affected by the weather.

Our members are telling us that they have pivoted to telehealth service delivery with varying levels of success. This is a game-changer for some and will theoretically increase access to and choice of service providers in areas where providers are thin on the ground in rural areas. For other providers, the quality of the internet connection has been a major barrier to delivering services via this modality.

So how have health consumers managed the switch to telehealth? Accessing health services via telehealth assumes that the person accessing the service has the hardware, infrastructure and capacity to do so. This also assumes that the person has the space in their home for privacy to engage in telehealth. We know that many rural and remote Australians continue to struggle with access to reliable internet connections. We know that many of our most vulnerable households don’t have the means to engage in telehealth; for that you need access to a connected telephone/internet and devices to support telehealth. So does telehealth highlight the underlying vulnerabilities for socioeconomically disadvantaged groups further?

Looking at the MBS data for frequently billed items for allied health, it appears this may be the case. When we look at the break down of how services are accessed we can see that the overwhelming majority (94.52% to be exact) of allied health services for people with chronic health conditions during the month of April were provided face to face. Of the 24,660 telehealth sessions delivered by AHPs to people with chronic disease over the same period, 68% were via the telephone. Does this suggest a lack of basic infrastructure to support video consultations? The federal government recommends that telehealth should be provided via a videoconference platform unless this is not possible. Why was this not possible for 68% of the sessions delivered to people with chronic disease?

This picture will continue to unfold as we see data released from private health funds and the NDIS as we know that there are many other areas of telehealth that have been core business for allied health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chronic Disease
The introduction of additional MBS items in late March demonstrated a commitment from the Federal government to ensure all Australian’s had the opportunity to maintain access to primary health services. Allied health professionals are vital in the management of chronic health conditions. Allied health professionals work to improve health literacy and keep people well and out of hospital. The MBS data demonstrates a disturbing trend in access to services during the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020 we saw a 31% drop in the number of MBS claims made for the provision of allied health services in the management of chronic disease compared to the same period last year. Where are these patients? How are their conditions being managed at this challenging and isolating time?

SARRAH has been working with our colleagues of the Australian Allied Health Leadership Forum (AAHLF) to raise awareness with the Commonwealth of the need to prepare for a surge in demand for rehabilitation and post-acute care services for both COVID and non-COVID patients. Currently this area is not well understood by government, particularly those activities that occur in primary health settings, and funding for rehabilitation that happens outside the hospital setting is largely left to private health insurers and third-party payers. AAHLF is calling for the government to take action to manage a surge in demand for services to the same level as the acute and mental health response has been. If left unmanaged we may anticipate that the disparity in health outcomes for socioeconomically disadvantaged groups will only widen.

Stay well, everyone.

Cath

SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice
As remote working becomes the new norm, telehealth is more popular than ever. SARRAH is ready to support allied health professionals navigate telehealth. To find further info or join our SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice email sarrah@sarrah.org.au or visit our dedicated telehealth resource page here.

SARRAH Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway
COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how we do business and highlighted how allied health can adapt to thrive. An Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway grant can support you in recruiting or retaining an early career professional to future-proof your business by capability in emerging areas like telehealth. The overarching goal of the Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway strategy (AHRGP strategy) is to improve health outcomes for rural and remote consumers through increasing access to a highly skilled allied health workforce and enhancing opportunities for multi-disciplinary care in rural healthcare teams. Applying is simple and will help you put the right foot forward in this new era. Visit https://sarrah.org.au/ahrgp to learn more and apply.

Tickets are selling fast for our next webinar. Numbers are limited, so get in quick!

Webinar recording of "Experiences and Outcomes of Rural Generalist Trainees in QLD, NSW and TAS" now available!

On Thursday 19 March a group of Allied Health Rural Generalist trainees presented summaries of their service development projects. You can catch the recording here.

Current Job VacanciesSenior Clinical Podiatrist - SA Health - Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network
The Senior Clinical Podiatrist is an experienced clinician who applies significant clinical and leadership expertise to the development, delivery and continuous improvement of quality Podiatry services appropriate to the rural and remote context. Operating within a multi-disciplinary service context, the Clinical Senior Podiatrist upholds professional standards and provides complex clinical and consultancy Podiatry services across the Riverland Mallee Coorong. For more information visit our website.

Physiotherapist – Katherine Physio - Katherine
Rural Workforce Agency Northern Territory (RWA NT) are partnering with Katherine Physio to find a Physiotherapist to join their passionate Katherine based team. Katherine Physio is a community based practice who work hard to educate their patients on their condition and empower them with the tools to assist self-management. For more information visit our website.

Occupational Therapist - Top End Health Service - Darwin/Palmerston
Provision and co-ordination of clinical Occupational Therapy (OT) Services at the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) and Palmerston Regional Hospital as well as specific leadership, supervision/mentorship and education to directly reporting staff, as well as other professionals within their own team and/or across disciplines throughout the Top End Health Service (TEHS). Advanced clinical experience in any of the following areas, Paediatrics, Hand Therapy, or Surgical. For more information visit our website.

We know that people living in rural and remote Australia experience poorer health outcomes than their metropolitan counterparts1. In a timely article published by Croakey this week, Tim Adair and Alan Lopez inform us that Australians living in socially disadvantaged areas and outside major cities are much more likely to die prematurely2 , and that disparities in health outcomes such as this are widening. The health of rural and remote Australians living with chronic disease is therefore likely to have been highly impacted due to the disruption to care during the lockdown, and those impacts will be longer-lasting due to poor access to health services in rural and remote areas. Alongside these sobering facts we also know that economic fallout from the pandemic is already being experienced disproportionately among poorer households, in poorer regions within countries, and in poorer countries in general3.

So it seems that social and economic recovery will not happen equitably for all Australians unless specific focus is given to supporting those living with socioeconomic disadvantage who have been most impacted by the lockdown. The consequences of a one-size-fits-all approach to recovery might include a prolonged economic downturn for rural and remote Australia, with a consequent drift of people away from rural towns in search of job security, as well as an acceleration in health disparities for people living in the bush.

Careful, rural-proofed strategies to rebuilding are required to ensure that all Australians can benefit from lessons learned from the pandemic.

If there are any silver linings to be gleaned from the COVID-19 pandemic, one shining example is the swift transition by health professionals everywhere to telehealth as an adjunct to face-to-face consultations. Feedback from physiotherapists working in primary health settings in rural NSW indicate that on the whole their clients like the medium, particularly those who live outside of regional centres, because it reduced the need to travel to access care. As we know, one of the central principles of primary health care is that which is delivered as close to the client’s home as possible. One of the most important decisions the government, private health insurers and third party payers might make would be to retain telehealth as one element of a suite of services that truly support equitable access to care for all Australians.

There are still problems to overcome to ensure telehealth is accessible to all, with reports that the user-end experience requires some improvement. We hear from AHPs providing services to Aboriginal communities in Western NSW that access to technology, both in terms of hardware/devices and internet connectivity/performance, continues to be an issue.

These persistent barriers to service access arising from gaps in basic infrastructure and wealth disparity point to the need for targeted strategies to support rural and remote Australia as we emerge from social and economic lockdown.

Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA), the national organisation for the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander allied health workforce, stand with our colleagues the Australian Indigenous
Psychologists Association (AIPA) and Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Australia in their call for
Government commitments to be backed by action.

On 15 May, National Cabinet endorsed the National Mental Health and Wellbeing Pandemic
Response Plan. The Commonwealth designated $48.1M for the Plan, adding to around $500M
already committed for mental health and suicide prevention since January.

The need for appropriately resourced and targeted mental health services for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people was stark before the COVID crisis. The evidence of the impact of
longstanding economic and social disadvantage and trauma on Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people is overwhelming and continually noted.

This is the situation COVID19 has amplified. It didn’t come on us suddenly. Nor has the
evidence of this need been hidden.

On 18 May, AIPA and the Centre for Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Suicide Prevention (CBPATSISP) called for an Indigenous phone help-line, operated under
Indigenous leadership and with Indigenous counsellors and mental health practitioners
available 24/7. AIPA has been advocating for such a service since 2016.

An Indigenous specific phone help-line must be a priority and should not need to be continually
argued when the evidence is clear. Nor should we have to call again for urgent, sustained
investment to build the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and social and
emotional wellbeing workforce. So many reports and plans have already identified the need to
do so, with little to no implementation or investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led
solutions developed by the experts themselves.

“The Indigenous help-line is a necessary and obvious investment. We have a strong, skilled
and qualified existing workforce in mental health and social and emotional wellbeing, and IAHA
is working hard in continuing to grow the next generation of the mental health workforce”. said
Donna Murray, IAHA CEO.

Current Job VacanciesSenior Clinical Podiatrist - SA Health - Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network
The Senior Clinical Podiatrist is an experienced clinician who applies significant clinical and leadership expertise to the development, delivery and continuous improvement of quality Podiatry services appropriate to the rural and remote context. Operating within a multi-disciplinary service context, the Clinical Senior Podiatrist upholds professional standards and provides complex clinical and consultancy Podiatry services across the Riverland Mallee Coorong. For more information visit our website.

Physiotherapist – Katherine Physio - Katherine
Rural Workforce Agency Northern Territory (RWA NT) are partnering with Katherine Physio to find a Physiotherapist to join their passionate Katherine based team. Katherine Physio is a community based practice who work hard to educate their patients on their condition and empower them with the tools to assist self-management. For more information visit our website.

Occupational Therapist - Top End Health Service - Darwin/Palmerston
Provision and co-ordination of clinical Occupational Therapy (OT) Services at the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) and Palmerston Regional Hospital as well as specific leadership, supervision/mentorship and education to directly reporting staff, as well as other professionals within their own team and/or across disciplines throughout the Top End Health Service (TEHS). Advanced clinical experience in any of the following areas, Paediatrics, Hand Therapy, or Surgical. For more information visit our website.

SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice
As remote working becomes the new norm, telehealth is more popular than ever. SARRAH is ready to support allied health professionals navigate telehealth. To find further info or join our SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice email sarrah@sarrah.org.au or visit our dedicated telehealth resource page here.

SARRAH Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway
COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how we do business and highlighted how allied health can adapt to thrive. An Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway grant can support you in recruiting or retaining an early career professional to future-proof your business by capability in emerging areas like telehealth. The overarching goal of the Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway strategy (AHRGP strategy) is to improve health outcomes for rural and remote consumers through increasing access to a highly skilled allied health workforce and enhancing opportunities for multi-disciplinary care in rural healthcare teams. Applying is simple and will help you put the right foot forward in this new era. Visit https://sarrah.org.au/ahrgp to learn more and apply.

COVID-19 Information for Allied Health Professionals
The Department of Health has released a 30-minute online trainingmodule covering the fundamentals of infection prevention and
control for COVID-19 and is intended for health care workers in
all settings. It also includes COVID-19 - What is it?, signs and symptoms, keeping safe - protecting yourself and others and mythbusting.

Healthdirect Australia is working with the Australian Government Department of Health to provide information about COVID-19 to the public. They are sharing messaging and resources to help you provide evidence-based trusted information about COVID-19 to your community. These resources will be updated continually throughout this pandemic.

Healthdirect Australia has worked with the Department of Health to establish the Coronavirus Health Information Line (1800 020 080) to provide non-clinical information about COVID-19. Our healthdirect helpline (1800 022 222) is triaging people calling with symptoms. Both lines are receiving unprecedented call volumes, resulting in extended wait times for some callers. As part of the Australian Government’s health plan announced yesterday, we are expanding these helplines to be able to provide timely advice and support to everyone who needs it.

As an alternative to the helplines, answers to many questions are available on the healthdirect website coronavirus hub. Please direct your community to this hub as their first point of reference for reliable information about COVID-19. The healthdirect Symptom Checker provides self-guided triage to find out what to do next. A series of social media assets and videos are also available to download and use in your campaigns.

This fact sheet relates to a temporary six-month measure for Bulk Billed MBS Telehealth Services for doctors, nurses and mental health professionals to deliver services via telehealth, provided those services are bulk billed. The new MBS items will allow people to access essential health services in their home while they undergo self-isolation or quarantine, and reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 for vulnerable people in the community.

The DOH has also released a fact sheet providing guidance on the distribution of PPE such as Tranche 1, Surgical masks and P2/N95 respirators in PHNs.

We are sharing this important information with all of our Information Partners - feel free to share both within your community and externally to help people easily find reliable information about COVID-19.

The Federal Government has put in place emergency protocols to expedite the process of getting GPs and allied health professionals to bushfire-affected communities where they are needed most.

The Department of Health and Department of Human Services will prioritise all applications from health professionals who want to work in bushfire-affected communities. Allied health professionals can work at a new practice for up to two weeks using their existing Medicare provider number.

People wishing to provide supplies and assistance are advised to direct their enquiries to the relevant state government. Financial donations are preferred at this point, as services have been overwhelmed with donated clothing and household goods. Donations can be directed to the relevant organisation in their state:

The Victorian Bushfire Appeal;

The NSW Fire Service; or

The State Emergency Relief Fund (SA)

Emerging Minds: Community Trauma Toolkit
This toolkit contains resources to help and support adults and children before, during, and after a disaster or traumatic event. It will help you understand some of the impacts of disaster and how you can help lessen these impacts.

We know that people living in rural and remote Australia experience poorer health outcomes than their metropolitan counterparts1. In a timely article published by Croakey this week, Tim Adair and Alan Lopez inform us that Australians living in socially disadvantaged areas and outside major cities are much more likely to die prematurely2 , and that disparities in health outcomes such as this are widening. The health of rural and remote Australians living with chronic disease is therefore likely to have been highly impacted due to the disruption to care during the lockdown, and those impacts will be longer-lasting due to poor access to health services in rural and remote areas. Alongside these sobering facts we also know that economic fallout from the pandemic is already being experienced disproportionately among poorer households, in poorer regions within countries, and in poorer countries in general3.

So it seems that social and economic recovery will not happen equitably for all Australians unless specific focus is given to supporting those living with socioeconomic disadvantage who have been most impacted by the lockdown. The consequences of a one-size-fits-all approach to recovery might include a prolonged economic downturn for rural and remote Australia, with a consequent drift of people away from rural towns in search of job security, as well as an acceleration in health disparities for people living in the bush.

Careful, rural-proofed strategies to rebuilding are required to ensure that all Australians can benefit from lessons learned from the pandemic.

If there are any silver linings to be gleaned from the COVID-19 pandemic, one shining example is the swift transition by health professionals everywhere to telehealth as an adjunct to face-to-face consultations. Feedback from physiotherapists working in primary health settings in rural NSW indicate that on the whole their clients like the medium, particularly those who live outside of regional centres, because it reduced the need to travel to access care. As we know, one of the central principles of primary health care is that which is delivered as close to the client’s home as possible. One of the most important decisions the government, private health insurers and third party payers might make would be to retain telehealth as one element of a suite of services that truly support equitable access to care for all Australians.

There are still problems to overcome to ensure telehealth is accessible to all, with reports that the user-end experience requires some improvement. We hear from AHPs providing services to Aboriginal communities in Western NSW that access to technology, both in terms of hardware/devices and internet connectivity/performance, continues to be an issue.

These persistent barriers to service access arising from gaps in basic infrastructure and wealth disparity point to the need for targeted strategies to support rural and remote Australia as we emerge from social and economic lockdown.

Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA), the national organisation for the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander allied health workforce, stand with our colleagues the Australian Indigenous
Psychologists Association (AIPA) and Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Australia in their call for
Government commitments to be backed by action.

On 15 May, National Cabinet endorsed the National Mental Health and Wellbeing Pandemic
Response Plan. The Commonwealth designated $48.1M for the Plan, adding to around $500M
already committed for mental health and suicide prevention since January.

The need for appropriately resourced and targeted mental health services for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people was stark before the COVID crisis. The evidence of the impact of
longstanding economic and social disadvantage and trauma on Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people is overwhelming and continually noted.

This is the situation COVID19 has amplified. It didn’t come on us suddenly. Nor has the
evidence of this need been hidden.

On 18 May, AIPA and the Centre for Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Suicide Prevention (CBPATSISP) called for an Indigenous phone help-line, operated under
Indigenous leadership and with Indigenous counsellors and mental health practitioners
available 24/7. AIPA has been advocating for such a service since 2016.

An Indigenous specific phone help-line must be a priority and should not need to be continually
argued when the evidence is clear. Nor should we have to call again for urgent, sustained
investment to build the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and social and
emotional wellbeing workforce. So many reports and plans have already identified the need to
do so, with little to no implementation or investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led
solutions developed by the experts themselves.

“The Indigenous help-line is a necessary and obvious investment. We have a strong, skilled
and qualified existing workforce in mental health and social and emotional wellbeing, and IAHA
is working hard in continuing to grow the next generation of the mental health workforce”. said
Donna Murray, IAHA CEO.

Current Job VacanciesSenior Clinical Podiatrist - SA Health - Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network
The Senior Clinical Podiatrist is an experienced clinician who applies significant clinical and leadership expertise to the development, delivery and continuous improvement of quality Podiatry services appropriate to the rural and remote context. Operating within a multi-disciplinary service context, the Clinical Senior Podiatrist upholds professional standards and provides complex clinical and consultancy Podiatry services across the Riverland Mallee Coorong. For more information visit our website.

Physiotherapist – Katherine Physio - Katherine
Rural Workforce Agency Northern Territory (RWA NT) are partnering with Katherine Physio to find a Physiotherapist to join their passionate Katherine based team. Katherine Physio is a community based practice who work hard to educate their patients on their condition and empower them with the tools to assist self-management. For more information visit our website.

Occupational Therapist - Top End Health Service - Darwin/Palmerston
Provision and co-ordination of clinical Occupational Therapy (OT) Services at the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) and Palmerston Regional Hospital as well as specific leadership, supervision/mentorship and education to directly reporting staff, as well as other professionals within their own team and/or across disciplines throughout the Top End Health Service (TEHS). Advanced clinical experience in any of the following areas, Paediatrics, Hand Therapy, or Surgical. For more information visit our website.

SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice
As remote working becomes the new norm, telehealth is more popular than ever. SARRAH is ready to support allied health professionals navigate telehealth. To find further info or join our SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice email sarrah@sarrah.org.au or visit our dedicated telehealth resource page here.

SARRAH Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway
COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how we do business and highlighted how allied health can adapt to thrive. An Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway grant can support you in recruiting or retaining an early career professional to future-proof your business by capability in emerging areas like telehealth. The overarching goal of the Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway strategy (AHRGP strategy) is to improve health outcomes for rural and remote consumers through increasing access to a highly skilled allied health workforce and enhancing opportunities for multi-disciplinary care in rural healthcare teams. Applying is simple and will help you put the right foot forward in this new era. Visit https://sarrah.org.au/ahrgp to learn more and apply.

COVID-19 Information for Allied Health Professionals
The Department of Health has released a 30-minute online trainingmodule covering the fundamentals of infection prevention and
control for COVID-19 and is intended for health care workers in
all settings. It also includes COVID-19 - What is it?, signs and symptoms, keeping safe - protecting yourself and others and mythbusting.

Healthdirect Australia is working with the Australian Government Department of Health to provide information about COVID-19 to the public. They are sharing messaging and resources to help you provide evidence-based trusted information about COVID-19 to your community. These resources will be updated continually throughout this pandemic.

Healthdirect Australia has worked with the Department of Health to establish the Coronavirus Health Information Line (1800 020 080) to provide non-clinical information about COVID-19. Our healthdirect helpline (1800 022 222) is triaging people calling with symptoms. Both lines are receiving unprecedented call volumes, resulting in extended wait times for some callers. As part of the Australian Government’s health plan announced yesterday, we are expanding these helplines to be able to provide timely advice and support to everyone who needs it.

As an alternative to the helplines, answers to many questions are available on the healthdirect website coronavirus hub. Please direct your community to this hub as their first point of reference for reliable information about COVID-19. The healthdirect Symptom Checker provides self-guided triage to find out what to do next. A series of social media assets and videos are also available to download and use in your campaigns.

This fact sheet relates to a temporary six-month measure for Bulk Billed MBS Telehealth Services for doctors, nurses and mental health professionals to deliver services via telehealth, provided those services are bulk billed. The new MBS items will allow people to access essential health services in their home while they undergo self-isolation or quarantine, and reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 for vulnerable people in the community.

The DOH has also released a fact sheet providing guidance on the distribution of PPE such as Tranche 1, Surgical masks and P2/N95 respirators in PHNs.

We are sharing this important information with all of our Information Partners - feel free to share both within your community and externally to help people easily find reliable information about COVID-19.

The Federal Government has put in place emergency protocols to expedite the process of getting GPs and allied health professionals to bushfire-affected communities where they are needed most.

The Department of Health and Department of Human Services will prioritise all applications from health professionals who want to work in bushfire-affected communities. Allied health professionals can work at a new practice for up to two weeks using their existing Medicare provider number.

People wishing to provide supplies and assistance are advised to direct their enquiries to the relevant state government. Financial donations are preferred at this point, as services have been overwhelmed with donated clothing and household goods. Donations can be directed to the relevant organisation in their state:

The Victorian Bushfire Appeal;

The NSW Fire Service; or

The State Emergency Relief Fund (SA)

Emerging Minds: Community Trauma Toolkit
This toolkit contains resources to help and support adults and children before, during, and after a disaster or traumatic event. It will help you understand some of the impacts of disaster and how you can help lessen these impacts.

This week the SARRAH team has been busy at work! We have been ensuring the best interests of rural and remote allied health professionals are considered during this COVID-19 pandemic through meetings with the Commonwealth Department of Health Primary Healthcare Division. As a part of their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Health have been holding regular COVID-19 Primary Care and Allied Health Webinars to address concerns, questions and to provide updates regarding COVID-19 care and prevention. We are pleased that the South Australian Chief Allied Health Officer has joined these webinars. We welcome her expertise, input and understanding into these discussion especially from an allied health perspective. This has no doubt benefited many and we encourage you all to view these webinars (notifications about upcoming webinars will be published on our social media platforms!).

Finally, it is with regret and disappointment to report that the 2020 SARRAH Conference in Townsville has been cancelled due to the uncertainty arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Our thanks go to our fantastic conference organising committee for working through some tough decisions, our sponsors as always for their support, our keynote speakers and to those that contributed submitted abstracts. We also give a big thank you to those that have supported us in previous conferences and planned to attend our 2020 conference. We will be back in 2022 with a fantastic conference program for you all and cannot wait to join you soon.

Primary health care services and professionals are still recovering from the impact of bushfire and long-term drought.

NSW Rural Doctors Network has grants of up to $10,000 to support eligible practices and practitioners towards recovery and sustainability. Primary care practices and individuals can complete an Expression of Interest (EOI) in funding to address the significant physical, social or emotional impacts of a natural disaster or emergency. Find out if you are eligible and complete an EOI here.

SQRH Research into impact of COVID-19

Southern Queensland Rural Health (SQRH) is conducting a research study exploring attitudes and practices towards the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. The aim is to investigate whether concerns about COVID-19 community transmission and adherence to social distancing rules and hygiene practices differ depending on infection rates in different Australian geographical locations (metropolitan, regional, rural and remote areas).

The survey is for people aged 18 years and over who live in Australia and are willing to participate in the study. It is anticipated that the survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. The survey can be found here.

Digital Health CRC Telehealth Hub

The Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC) has today launched a new website, the Telehealth Hub which will help clinicians, health professionals and health consumers to access and deliver telehealth services in Australia more effectively. The site was created through a collaboration between Curtin University, La Trobe University and the DHCRC. The team quickly mobilised highly skilled people to check, collate and index the crowd-sourced information and develop this website. The website can be found here.

National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health Standards

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) is continuing the consultation process on the draft National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health (NSQDMH) Standards. To allow organisations and individuals additional time to respond, the Commission is extending the end date of the consultation process to 29 May 2020. Stakeholders can view the draft NSQDMH Standards on the Commission’s website.

The Commission has developed a series of fact sheets to provide tips for consumers, carers and clinicians choosing a digital mental health service. These fact sheets are based on the research and consultation the Commission has undertaken during the development of the NSQDMH Standards. The fact sheets and further information on the consultation process can be found here.

Cultural safety in the health workforce – no time to wait

Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA), the peak organisation for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander allied health workforce, is committed to supporting the good health and social and emotional wellbeing of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce, our people, families and communities, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

IAHA stands against all forms of racism and discrimination, which have no place within the health system and Australian communities. Racism has been demonstrated to contribute to poor health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, both by actively causing harm and acting as a barrier to essential care.

IAHA support the release of the No place for racism in healthcare statement from Ahpra and the National Boards which calls on practitioners to provide culturally safe care, free from racism. Ahpra acknowledges these issues continue to exist and cites disturbing examples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been subjected to racism and culturally unsafe care. Unfortunately, these are not isolated instances and can have particularly damaging impacts in these challenging times. Aphra’s work in this area is welcomed and extremely important.

IAHA Chairperson, Nicole Turner said “IAHA joins Ahpra in their message to health practitioners and in condemning all forms of racism and discrimination. IAHA look forward to real change from National Boards and professions in stamping out racism and building cultural safety and responsiveness across the breadth and depth of allied health professions.”

IAHA reinforces the message that racism will not be tolerated, whether as people being cared for or providing that care. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health professionals are also subjected to racism, discrimination and unsafe work environments. Under no circumstances should this ever happen.

The existing inequities in health, social and emotional wellbeing and the social determinants of health, place Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples at a higher risk of adverse outcomes associated with COVID-19. IAHA, alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peer organisations, have been working with Ahpra and the National Boards to embed cultural safety within the registered professions, in order to improve access to care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is critical in transforming health practitioner behaviours, attitudes, perspectives and assumptions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Current Job VacanciesPhysiotherapist – Katherine Physio - Katherine
Rural Workforce Agency Northern Territory (RWA NT) are partnering with Katherine Physio to find a Physiotherapist to join their passionate Katherine based team. Katherine Physio is a community based practice who work hard to educate their patients on their condition and empower them with the tools to assist self-management. For more information visit our website.

Occupational Therapist - Top End Health Service - Darwin/Palmerston
Provision and co-ordination of clinical Occupational Therapy (OT) Services at the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) and Palmerston Regional Hospital as well as specific leadership, supervision/mentorship and education to directly reporting staff, as well as other professionals within their own team and/or across disciplines throughout the Top End Health Service (TEHS). Advanced clinical experience in any of the following areas, Paediatrics, Hand Therapy, or Surgical. For more information visit our website.

Other News

1 in 5 Australians aged 45 years and over experienced chronic pain in 2015-16 as reported by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). In 2016, it was estimated that almost 1 in 5 (19%, 1.6 million) Australians aged 45 and over had chronic pain with higher rates for women compared to men. There were almost 105,000 hospitalisations in 2017–18 where chronic pain was deemed relevant to the patient’s care and patients with chronic pain were more likely to have a longer stay in hospital compared to those without.

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) Provider News has published an article, ‘DVA arrangements during the COVID-19 pandemic’. The article offers support services and resources that can assist you to provide the best care to your veteran patients during the COVID-19 pandemic provided by the DVA.

SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice
As remote working becomes the new norm, telehealth is more popular than ever. SARRAH is ready to support allied health professionals navigate telehealth. To find further info or join our SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice email sarrah@sarrah.org.au or visit our dedicated telehealth resource page here.

SARRAH Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway
COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how we do business and highlighted how allied health can adapt to thrive. An Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway grant can support you in recruiting or retaining an early career professional to future-proof your business by capability in emerging areas like telehealth. The overarching goal of the Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway strategy (AHRGP strategy) is to improve health outcomes for rural and remote consumers through increasing access to a highly skilled allied health workforce and enhancing opportunities for multi-disciplinary care in rural healthcare teams. Applying is simple and will help you put the right foot forward in this new era. Visit https://sarrah.org.au/ahrgp to learn more and apply.

COVID-19 Information for Allied Health Professionals
The Department of Health has released a 30-minute online trainingmodule covering the fundamentals of infection prevention and
control for COVID-19 and is intended for health care workers in
all settings. It also includes COVID-19 - What is it?, signs and symptoms, keeping safe - protecting yourself and others and mythbusting.

Healthdirect Australia is working with the Australian Government Department of Health to provide information about COVID-19 to the public. They are sharing messaging and resources to help you provide evidence-based trusted information about COVID-19 to your community. These resources will be updated continually throughout this pandemic.

Healthdirect Australia has worked with the Department of Health to establish the Coronavirus Health Information Line (1800 020 080) to provide non-clinical information about COVID-19. Our healthdirect helpline (1800 022 222) is triaging people calling with symptoms. Both lines are receiving unprecedented call volumes, resulting in extended wait times for some callers. As part of the Australian Government’s health plan announced yesterday, we are expanding these helplines to be able to provide timely advice and support to everyone who needs it.

As an alternative to the helplines, answers to many questions are available on the healthdirect website coronavirus hub. Please direct your community to this hub as their first point of reference for reliable information about COVID-19. The healthdirect Symptom Checker provides self-guided triage to find out what to do next. A series of social media assets and videos are also available to download and use in your campaigns.

This fact sheet relates to a temporary six-month measure for Bulk Billed MBS Telehealth Services for doctors, nurses and mental health professionals to deliver services via telehealth, provided those services are bulk billed. The new MBS items will allow people to access essential health services in their home while they undergo self-isolation or quarantine, and reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 for vulnerable people in the community.

The DOH has also released a fact sheet providing guidance on the distribution of PPE such as Tranche 1, Surgical masks and P2/N95 respirators in PHNs.

We are sharing this important information with all of our Information Partners - feel free to share both within your community and externally to help people easily find reliable information about COVID-19.

The Federal Government has put in place emergency protocols to expedite the process of getting GPs and allied health professionals to bushfire-affected communities where they are needed most.

The Department of Health and Department of Human Services will prioritise all applications from health professionals who want to work in bushfire-affected communities. Allied health professionals can work at a new practice for up to two weeks using their existing Medicare provider number.

People wishing to provide supplies and assistance are advised to direct their enquiries to the relevant state government. Financial donations are preferred at this point, as services have been overwhelmed with donated clothing and household goods. Donations can be directed to the relevant organisation in their state:

The Victorian Bushfire Appeal;

The NSW Fire Service; or

The State Emergency Relief Fund (SA)

Emerging Minds: Community Trauma Toolkit
This toolkit contains resources to help and support adults and children before, during, and after a disaster or traumatic event. It will help you understand some of the impacts of disaster and how you can help lessen these impacts.

This week the SARRAH team has been busy at work! We have been ensuring the best interests of rural and remote allied health professionals are considered during this COVID-19 pandemic through meetings with the Commonwealth Department of Health Primary Healthcare Division. As a part of their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Health have been holding regular COVID-19 Primary Care and Allied Health Webinars to address concerns, questions and to provide updates regarding COVID-19 care and prevention. We are pleased that the South Australian Chief Allied Health Officer has joined these webinars. We welcome her expertise, input and understanding into these discussion especially from an allied health perspective. This has no doubt benefited many and we encourage you all to view these webinars (notifications about upcoming webinars will be published on our social media platforms!).

Finally, it is with regret and disappointment to report that the 2020 SARRAH Conference in Townsville has been cancelled due to the uncertainty arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Our thanks go to our fantastic conference organising committee for working through some tough decisions, our sponsors as always for their support, our keynote speakers and to those that contributed submitted abstracts. We also give a big thank you to those that have supported us in previous conferences and planned to attend our 2020 conference. We will be back in 2022 with a fantastic conference program for you all and cannot wait to join you soon.

Primary health care services and professionals are still recovering from the impact of bushfire and long-term drought.

NSW Rural Doctors Network has grants of up to $10,000 to support eligible practices and practitioners towards recovery and sustainability. Primary care practices and individuals can complete an Expression of Interest (EOI) in funding to address the significant physical, social or emotional impacts of a natural disaster or emergency. Find out if you are eligible and complete an EOI here.

SQRH Research into impact of COVID-19

Southern Queensland Rural Health (SQRH) is conducting a research study exploring attitudes and practices towards the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. The aim is to investigate whether concerns about COVID-19 community transmission and adherence to social distancing rules and hygiene practices differ depending on infection rates in different Australian geographical locations (metropolitan, regional, rural and remote areas).

The survey is for people aged 18 years and over who live in Australia and are willing to participate in the study. It is anticipated that the survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. The survey can be found here.

Digital Health CRC Telehealth Hub

The Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC) has today launched a new website, the Telehealth Hub which will help clinicians, health professionals and health consumers to access and deliver telehealth services in Australia more effectively. The site was created through a collaboration between Curtin University, La Trobe University and the DHCRC. The team quickly mobilised highly skilled people to check, collate and index the crowd-sourced information and develop this website. The website can be found here.

National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health Standards

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) is continuing the consultation process on the draft National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health (NSQDMH) Standards. To allow organisations and individuals additional time to respond, the Commission is extending the end date of the consultation process to 29 May 2020. Stakeholders can view the draft NSQDMH Standards on the Commission’s website.

The Commission has developed a series of fact sheets to provide tips for consumers, carers and clinicians choosing a digital mental health service. These fact sheets are based on the research and consultation the Commission has undertaken during the development of the NSQDMH Standards. The fact sheets and further information on the consultation process can be found here.

Cultural safety in the health workforce – no time to wait

Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA), the peak organisation for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander allied health workforce, is committed to supporting the good health and social and emotional wellbeing of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce, our people, families and communities, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

IAHA stands against all forms of racism and discrimination, which have no place within the health system and Australian communities. Racism has been demonstrated to contribute to poor health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, both by actively causing harm and acting as a barrier to essential care.

IAHA support the release of the No place for racism in healthcare statement from Ahpra and the National Boards which calls on practitioners to provide culturally safe care, free from racism. Ahpra acknowledges these issues continue to exist and cites disturbing examples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been subjected to racism and culturally unsafe care. Unfortunately, these are not isolated instances and can have particularly damaging impacts in these challenging times. Aphra’s work in this area is welcomed and extremely important.

IAHA Chairperson, Nicole Turner said “IAHA joins Ahpra in their message to health practitioners and in condemning all forms of racism and discrimination. IAHA look forward to real change from National Boards and professions in stamping out racism and building cultural safety and responsiveness across the breadth and depth of allied health professions.”

IAHA reinforces the message that racism will not be tolerated, whether as people being cared for or providing that care. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health professionals are also subjected to racism, discrimination and unsafe work environments. Under no circumstances should this ever happen.

The existing inequities in health, social and emotional wellbeing and the social determinants of health, place Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples at a higher risk of adverse outcomes associated with COVID-19. IAHA, alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peer organisations, have been working with Ahpra and the National Boards to embed cultural safety within the registered professions, in order to improve access to care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is critical in transforming health practitioner behaviours, attitudes, perspectives and assumptions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Current Job VacanciesPhysiotherapist – Katherine Physio - Katherine
Rural Workforce Agency Northern Territory (RWA NT) are partnering with Katherine Physio to find a Physiotherapist to join their passionate Katherine based team. Katherine Physio is a community based practice who work hard to educate their patients on their condition and empower them with the tools to assist self-management. For more information visit our website.

Occupational Therapist - Top End Health Service - Darwin/Palmerston
Provision and co-ordination of clinical Occupational Therapy (OT) Services at the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) and Palmerston Regional Hospital as well as specific leadership, supervision/mentorship and education to directly reporting staff, as well as other professionals within their own team and/or across disciplines throughout the Top End Health Service (TEHS). Advanced clinical experience in any of the following areas, Paediatrics, Hand Therapy, or Surgical. For more information visit our website.

Other News

1 in 5 Australians aged 45 years and over experienced chronic pain in 2015-16 as reported by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). In 2016, it was estimated that almost 1 in 5 (19%, 1.6 million) Australians aged 45 and over had chronic pain with higher rates for women compared to men. There were almost 105,000 hospitalisations in 2017–18 where chronic pain was deemed relevant to the patient’s care and patients with chronic pain were more likely to have a longer stay in hospital compared to those without.

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) Provider News has published an article, ‘DVA arrangements during the COVID-19 pandemic’. The article offers support services and resources that can assist you to provide the best care to your veteran patients during the COVID-19 pandemic provided by the DVA.

SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice
As remote working becomes the new norm, telehealth is more popular than ever. SARRAH is ready to support allied health professionals navigate telehealth. To find further info or join our SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice email sarrah@sarrah.org.au or visit our dedicated telehealth resource page here.

SARRAH Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway
COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how we do business and highlighted how allied health can adapt to thrive. An Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway grant can support you in recruiting or retaining an early career professional to future-proof your business by capability in emerging areas like telehealth. The overarching goal of the Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway strategy (AHRGP strategy) is to improve health outcomes for rural and remote consumers through increasing access to a highly skilled allied health workforce and enhancing opportunities for multi-disciplinary care in rural healthcare teams. Applying is simple and will help you put the right foot forward in this new era. Visit https://sarrah.org.au/ahrgp to learn more and apply.

COVID-19 Information for Allied Health Professionals
The Department of Health has released a 30-minute online trainingmodule covering the fundamentals of infection prevention and
control for COVID-19 and is intended for health care workers in
all settings. It also includes COVID-19 - What is it?, signs and symptoms, keeping safe - protecting yourself and others and mythbusting.

Healthdirect Australia is working with the Australian Government Department of Health to provide information about COVID-19 to the public. They are sharing messaging and resources to help you provide evidence-based trusted information about COVID-19 to your community. These resources will be updated continually throughout this pandemic.

Healthdirect Australia has worked with the Department of Health to establish the Coronavirus Health Information Line (1800 020 080) to provide non-clinical information about COVID-19. Our healthdirect helpline (1800 022 222) is triaging people calling with symptoms. Both lines are receiving unprecedented call volumes, resulting in extended wait times for some callers. As part of the Australian Government’s health plan announced yesterday, we are expanding these helplines to be able to provide timely advice and support to everyone who needs it.

As an alternative to the helplines, answers to many questions are available on the healthdirect website coronavirus hub. Please direct your community to this hub as their first point of reference for reliable information about COVID-19. The healthdirect Symptom Checker provides self-guided triage to find out what to do next. A series of social media assets and videos are also available to download and use in your campaigns.

This fact sheet relates to a temporary six-month measure for Bulk Billed MBS Telehealth Services for doctors, nurses and mental health professionals to deliver services via telehealth, provided those services are bulk billed. The new MBS items will allow people to access essential health services in their home while they undergo self-isolation or quarantine, and reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 for vulnerable people in the community.

The DOH has also released a fact sheet providing guidance on the distribution of PPE such as Tranche 1, Surgical masks and P2/N95 respirators in PHNs.

We are sharing this important information with all of our Information Partners - feel free to share both within your community and externally to help people easily find reliable information about COVID-19.

The Federal Government has put in place emergency protocols to expedite the process of getting GPs and allied health professionals to bushfire-affected communities where they are needed most.

The Department of Health and Department of Human Services will prioritise all applications from health professionals who want to work in bushfire-affected communities. Allied health professionals can work at a new practice for up to two weeks using their existing Medicare provider number.

People wishing to provide supplies and assistance are advised to direct their enquiries to the relevant state government. Financial donations are preferred at this point, as services have been overwhelmed with donated clothing and household goods. Donations can be directed to the relevant organisation in their state:

The Victorian Bushfire Appeal;

The NSW Fire Service; or

The State Emergency Relief Fund (SA)

Emerging Minds: Community Trauma Toolkit
This toolkit contains resources to help and support adults and children before, during, and after a disaster or traumatic event. It will help you understand some of the impacts of disaster and how you can help lessen these impacts.

SARRAH’s continued engagement with government has contributed to the lifting of restrictions on bulk-billing for MBS items for allied health professionals announced earlier this week. SARRAH commends the government for acting on our concerns for the viability of rural practices, and for continuing to engage with us and our fellow members of the Australian Allied Health Leadership Forum (AAHLF). Weekly meetings have recently been established with AAHLF and we look forward to providing insights and advice to the Department of Health about the central role allied health professionals play in every facet of health service delivery, ensuring that health system responses recognise and utilise this highly skilled section of the health workforce.

With the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, leveraging the allied health workforce is more crucial than ever to bolster overall health system capacity and reduce demand and pressure on acute health resources and staff. Coordinated planning and utilisation of AHP capacity will help maintain community health, promote recovery and contain the impact of COVID-19 on service system capacity and cost.

As health leaders at the Commonwealth level have worked diligently to pivot the medical and nursing workforce in preparation for a surge in health service demand, by contrast there has been a distinct lack of a coordinated approach to adequately prepare the allied health workforce for the pandemic.The ability of the government to mobilise the available medical and nursing workforce has been greatly facilitated by the leadership provided by the national Chief Medical and Nursing Officers, a plethora of deputy appointments, and the existence of workforce data sets that greatly help to identify system capacity. It is in times of crisis such as these that the lack of knowledge about the role and functions of allied health is exposed, greatly impeding decision makers in their efforts to identify health system capacity.

Surely the time has come for the government to appoint a dedicated national Chief Allied Health Officer. SARRAH has long advocated for better workforce data for the allied health professions, and for leadership at a national level. Earlier this year, the National Rural Health Commissioner identified this need in his interim report, a recommendation that SARRAH has strongly supported as a means to improve rural allied health access, quality and distribution and in turn improving health outcomes for rural and remote communities and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

In terms of the COVID-19 pandemic, a Chief Allied Health Officer would greatly assist the government to:

Be the primary contact point and funnel for information to/from Commonwealth across relevant agencies responsible for allied health services

Provide advice to the Commonwealth with regard to allied health workforce capacity, roles and functions;

Represent allied health professionals on the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, providing advice to the Committee as decisions are being made

Improve communications between the Commonwealth, allied health service providers and health consumers;

Oversee the development of mechanisms and resources to support allied health professionals continue to provide essential services to the community during the pandemic.

While acknowledging that the Deputy Secretary of Health Systems Policy and Primary Care Group currently holds the title of Chief Allied Health Officer in addition to other responsibilities, clearly the position requires a level of technical expertise to effectively engage with the sector at times such as these.

A temporary appointment of an existing state Chief Allied Health Advisor would be an expedient way to provide the government with much-needed advice and support as COVID-19 contingencies continue to roll out.

The time has come to recognise the need for leadership for more than 200,000 allied health professionals in this country who are ready and able to support the health system in its response to COVID-19 pandemic by appointing a Chief Allied Health Officer.

Stay well, everyone.

Cath

Cultural safety in the health workforce – no time to wait

Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA), the peak organisation for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander allied health workforce, is committed to supporting the good health and social and emotional wellbeing of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce, our people, families and communities, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

IAHA stands against all forms of racism and discrimination, which have no place within the health system and Australian communities. Racism has been demonstrated to contribute to poor health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, both by actively causing harm and acting as a barrier to essential care.

IAHA support the release of the No place for racism in healthcare statement from Ahpra and the National Boards which calls on practitioners to provide culturally safe care, free from racism. Ahpra acknowledges these issues continue to exist and cites disturbing examples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been subjected to racism and culturally unsafe care. Unfortunately, these are not isolated instances and can have particularly damaging impacts in these challenging times. Aphra’s work in this area is welcomed and extremely important.

IAHA Chairperson, Nicole Turner said “IAHA joins Ahpra in their message to health practitioners and in condemning all forms of racism and discrimination. IAHA look forward to real change from National Boards and professions in stamping out racism and building cultural safety and responsiveness across the breadth and depth of allied health professions.”

IAHA reinforces the message that racism will not be tolerated, whether as people being cared for or providing that care. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health professionals are also subjected to racism, discrimination and unsafe work environments. Under no circumstances should this ever happen.

The existing inequities in health, social and emotional wellbeing and the social determinants of health, place Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples at a higher risk of adverse outcomes associated with COVID-19. IAHA, alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peer organisations, have been working with Ahpra and the National Boards to embed cultural safety within the registered professions, in order to improve access to care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is critical in transforming health practitioner behaviours, attitudes, perspectives and assumptions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice
As remote working becomes the new norm, telehealth is more popular than ever. SARRAH is ready to support allied health professionals navigate telehealth. To find further info or join our SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice email sarrah@sarrah.org.au or visit our dedicated telehealth resource page here.

NSW Government Agency for Clinical Innovation Telehealth Capability Interest Group
Beginning 16 April the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation is introducing a free weekly Information series to assist in providing core telehealth information and support to clinicians with rapid transition of telehealth in the COVID-19 environment.

The Telehealth Capability Interest Group (TCIG) is a community of practice that aims to share telehealth initiatives and supports clinicians to increase the use of telehealth into their clinical practice. The TCIG will be delivered every Thursday from 1:00pm - 2:00pm. Each TCIG forum will provide a detailed presentation with up to 10 minutes for questions, discussion and collaboration.

This forum is designed for you and will help you:

share information and knowledge

identify common issues at a state level

network and build capacity

identify excellence and promote innovative models

enable uptake and usage of Telehealth Guidelines: Telehealth in Practice.

The expert panel will include Telehealth Managers, Medical, Nursing and Allied Health providers that have successfully integrated telehealth into their practice prior to COVID 19. Further information and registration can be found here.

SARRAH Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway
COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how we do business and highlighted how allied health can adapt to thrive. An Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway grant can support you in recruiting or retaining an early career professional to future-proof your business by capability in emerging areas like telehealth. The overarching goal of the Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway strategy (AHRGP strategy) is to improve health outcomes for rural and remote consumers through increasing access to a highly skilled allied health workforce and enhancing opportunities for multi-disciplinary care in rural healthcare teams. Applying is simple and will help you put the right foot forward in this new era. Visit https://sarrah.org.au/ahrgp to learn more and apply.

Current Job VacanciesPhysiotherapist – Katherine Physio - Katherine
Rural Workforce Agency Northern Territory (RWA NT) are partnering with Katherine Physio to find a Physiotherapist to join their passionate Katherine based team. Katherine Physio is a community based practice who work hard to educate their patients on their condition and empower them with the tools to assist self-management. For more information visit our website.

COVID-19 Information for Allied Health Professionals
The Department of Health has released a 30-minute online trainingmodule covering the fundamentals of infection prevention and
control for COVID-19 and is intended for health care workers in
all settings. It also includes COVID-19 - What is it?, signs and symptoms, keeping safe - protecting yourself and others and mythbusting.

Healthdirect Australia is working with the Australian Government Department of Health to provide information about COVID-19 to the public. They are sharing messaging and resources to help you provide evidence-based trusted information about COVID-19 to your community. These resources will be updated continually throughout this pandemic.

Healthdirect Australia has worked with the Department of Health to establish the Coronavirus Health Information Line (1800 020 080) to provide non-clinical information about COVID-19. Our healthdirect helpline (1800 022 222) is triaging people calling with symptoms. Both lines are receiving unprecedented call volumes, resulting in extended wait times for some callers. As part of the Australian Government’s health plan announced yesterday, we are expanding these helplines to be able to provide timely advice and support to everyone who needs it.

As an alternative to the helplines, answers to many questions are available on the healthdirect website coronavirus hub. Please direct your community to this hub as their first point of reference for reliable information about COVID-19. The healthdirect Symptom Checker provides self-guided triage to find out what to do next. A series of social media assets and videos are also available to download and use in your campaigns.

This fact sheet relates to a temporary six-month measure for Bulk Billed MBS Telehealth Services for doctors, nurses and mental health professionals to deliver services via telehealth, provided those services are bulk billed. The new MBS items will allow people to access essential health services in their home while they undergo self-isolation or quarantine, and reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 for vulnerable people in the community.

The DOH has also released a fact sheet providing guidance on the distribution of PPE such as Tranche 1, Surgical masks and P2/N95 respirators in PHNs.

We are sharing this important information with all of our Information Partners - feel free to share both within your community and externally to help people easily find reliable information about COVID-19.

Online training provided by Phoenix Training assisting healthcare professionals communicate with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders with hearing loss can be found here.

SARRAH Webinars 2020

SARRAH is excited to announce a series of engaging webinars for March, April and May. All SARRAH members have access to free tickets to the webinar as a part of their membership perks (contact sarrah@sarrah.org.au for the promo codes).

The Social Determinants of Attracting, Building and Retaining a Rural/Remote Health Workforce – Findings from my 2019 Churchill Fellowship trip to Canada
Dr Cath Cosgrave
Thursday 14 May 6:30pm (AEST)

Dr Cosgrave is a social scientist with internationally recognised expertise in rural health workforce (recruitment and retention). Her research specialisation is rural health workforce recruitment and retention of nursing and allied health professionals; sub-specialisations include early-career and health professionals from non-rural backgrounds. In 2018, Dr Cosgrave was awarded a Churchill Fellowship, to visit rural and remote communities in Canada to investigate community-led and engaged health workforce development approaches for the psychosocial needs of newcomer health workers. Since completing her PhD in 2016, she has been working as a research fellow at the University of Melbourne, Department of Rural Health and as an independent management consultant in rural health services and workforce planning. Dr Cosgrave has developed a ‘Whole-of-Person Retention Improvement Framework’ outlining supports for improving job and life satisfaction. Dr Cosgrave has recently completed a two-year partnership project with two rural Victorian public-health services working to support improved retention of their allied health workforce; she is currently writing up the study. Further information about the webinar can be found on this flyer.
Tickets to access this Webinar can be found here.

Webinar recording of "Experiences and Outcomes of Rural Generalist Trainees in QLD, NSW and TAS" now available!

On Thursday 19 March a group of Allied Health Rural Generalist trainees presented summaries of their service development projects. You can catch the recording here.

#SARRAH2020

SARRAH 2020 National Rural and Remote Allied Health Conference

The Organising Committee is delighted to present the SARRAH 2020 National Rural and Remote Allied Health Conference.

Hosted by SARRAH since 1995, this biennial conference is for all involved in regional, rural and remote allied health.

The Organising Committee invites you to Townsville

to hear a range of eminent speakers,

to join us as we share stories to shape the future success for remote, rural and regional allied health, and

The Federal Government has put in place emergency protocols to expedite the process of getting GPs and allied health professionals to bushfire-affected communities where they are needed most.

The Department of Health and Department of Human Services will prioritise all applications from health professionals who want to work in bushfire-affected communities. Allied health professionals can work at a new practice for up to two weeks using their existing Medicare provider number.

People wishing to provide supplies and assistance are advised to direct their enquiries to the relevant state government. Financial donations are preferred at this point, as services have been overwhelmed with donated clothing and household goods. Donations can be directed to the relevant organisation in their state:

The Victorian Bushfire Appeal;

The NSW Fire Service; or

The State Emergency Relief Fund (SA)

Emerging Minds: Community Trauma Toolkit
This toolkit contains resources to help and support adults and children before, during, and after a disaster or traumatic event. It will help you understand some of the impacts of disaster and how you can help lessen these impacts.

SARRAH’s continued engagement with government has contributed to the lifting of restrictions on bulk-billing for MBS items for allied health professionals announced earlier this week. SARRAH commends the government for acting on our concerns for the viability of rural practices, and for continuing to engage with us and our fellow members of the Australian Allied Health Leadership Forum (AAHLF). Weekly meetings have recently been established with AAHLF and we look forward to providing insights and advice to the Department of Health about the central role allied health professionals play in every facet of health service delivery, ensuring that health system responses recognise and utilise this highly skilled section of the health workforce.

With the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, leveraging the allied health workforce is more crucial than ever to bolster overall health system capacity and reduce demand and pressure on acute health resources and staff. Coordinated planning and utilisation of AHP capacity will help maintain community health, promote recovery and contain the impact of COVID-19 on service system capacity and cost.

As health leaders at the Commonwealth level have worked diligently to pivot the medical and nursing workforce in preparation for a surge in health service demand, by contrast there has been a distinct lack of a coordinated approach to adequately prepare the allied health workforce for the pandemic.The ability of the government to mobilise the available medical and nursing workforce has been greatly facilitated by the leadership provided by the national Chief Medical and Nursing Officers, a plethora of deputy appointments, and the existence of workforce data sets that greatly help to identify system capacity. It is in times of crisis such as these that the lack of knowledge about the role and functions of allied health is exposed, greatly impeding decision makers in their efforts to identify health system capacity.

Surely the time has come for the government to appoint a dedicated national Chief Allied Health Officer. SARRAH has long advocated for better workforce data for the allied health professions, and for leadership at a national level. Earlier this year, the National Rural Health Commissioner identified this need in his interim report, a recommendation that SARRAH has strongly supported as a means to improve rural allied health access, quality and distribution and in turn improving health outcomes for rural and remote communities and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

In terms of the COVID-19 pandemic, a Chief Allied Health Officer would greatly assist the government to:

Be the primary contact point and funnel for information to/from Commonwealth across relevant agencies responsible for allied health services

Provide advice to the Commonwealth with regard to allied health workforce capacity, roles and functions;

Represent allied health professionals on the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, providing advice to the Committee as decisions are being made

Improve communications between the Commonwealth, allied health service providers and health consumers;

Oversee the development of mechanisms and resources to support allied health professionals continue to provide essential services to the community during the pandemic.

While acknowledging that the Deputy Secretary of Health Systems Policy and Primary Care Group currently holds the title of Chief Allied Health Officer in addition to other responsibilities, clearly the position requires a level of technical expertise to effectively engage with the sector at times such as these.

A temporary appointment of an existing state Chief Allied Health Advisor would be an expedient way to provide the government with much-needed advice and support as COVID-19 contingencies continue to roll out.

The time has come to recognise the need for leadership for more than 200,000 allied health professionals in this country who are ready and able to support the health system in its response to COVID-19 pandemic by appointing a Chief Allied Health Officer.

Stay well, everyone.

Cath

Cultural safety in the health workforce – no time to wait

Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA), the peak organisation for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander allied health workforce, is committed to supporting the good health and social and emotional wellbeing of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce, our people, families and communities, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

IAHA stands against all forms of racism and discrimination, which have no place within the health system and Australian communities. Racism has been demonstrated to contribute to poor health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, both by actively causing harm and acting as a barrier to essential care.

IAHA support the release of the No place for racism in healthcare statement from Ahpra and the National Boards which calls on practitioners to provide culturally safe care, free from racism. Ahpra acknowledges these issues continue to exist and cites disturbing examples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been subjected to racism and culturally unsafe care. Unfortunately, these are not isolated instances and can have particularly damaging impacts in these challenging times. Aphra’s work in this area is welcomed and extremely important.

IAHA Chairperson, Nicole Turner said “IAHA joins Ahpra in their message to health practitioners and in condemning all forms of racism and discrimination. IAHA look forward to real change from National Boards and professions in stamping out racism and building cultural safety and responsiveness across the breadth and depth of allied health professions.”

IAHA reinforces the message that racism will not be tolerated, whether as people being cared for or providing that care. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health professionals are also subjected to racism, discrimination and unsafe work environments. Under no circumstances should this ever happen.

The existing inequities in health, social and emotional wellbeing and the social determinants of health, place Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples at a higher risk of adverse outcomes associated with COVID-19. IAHA, alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peer organisations, have been working with Ahpra and the National Boards to embed cultural safety within the registered professions, in order to improve access to care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is critical in transforming health practitioner behaviours, attitudes, perspectives and assumptions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice
As remote working becomes the new norm, telehealth is more popular than ever. SARRAH is ready to support allied health professionals navigate telehealth. To find further info or join our SARRAH Telehealth Community of Practice email sarrah@sarrah.org.au or visit our dedicated telehealth resource page here.

NSW Government Agency for Clinical Innovation Telehealth Capability Interest Group
Beginning 16 April the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation is introducing a free weekly Information series to assist in providing core telehealth information and support to clinicians with rapid transition of telehealth in the COVID-19 environment.

The Telehealth Capability Interest Group (TCIG) is a community of practice that aims to share telehealth initiatives and supports clinicians to increase the use of telehealth into their clinical practice. The TCIG will be delivered every Thursday from 1:00pm - 2:00pm. Each TCIG forum will provide a detailed presentation with up to 10 minutes for questions, discussion and collaboration.

This forum is designed for you and will help you:

share information and knowledge

identify common issues at a state level

network and build capacity

identify excellence and promote innovative models

enable uptake and usage of Telehealth Guidelines: Telehealth in Practice.

The expert panel will include Telehealth Managers, Medical, Nursing and Allied Health providers that have successfully integrated telehealth into their practice prior to COVID 19. Further information and registration can be found here.

SARRAH Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway
COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how we do business and highlighted how allied health can adapt to thrive. An Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway grant can support you in recruiting or retaining an early career professional to future-proof your business by capability in emerging areas like telehealth. The overarching goal of the Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway strategy (AHRGP strategy) is to improve health outcomes for rural and remote consumers through increasing access to a highly skilled allied health workforce and enhancing opportunities for multi-disciplinary care in rural healthcare teams. Applying is simple and will help you put the right foot forward in this new era. Visit https://sarrah.org.au/ahrgp to learn more and apply.

Current Job VacanciesPhysiotherapist – Katherine Physio - Katherine
Rural Workforce Agency Northern Territory (RWA NT) are partnering with Katherine Physio to find a Physiotherapist to join their passionate Katherine based team. Katherine Physio is a community based practice who work hard to educate their patients on their condition and empower them with the tools to assist self-management. For more information visit our website.

COVID-19 Information for Allied Health Professionals
The Department of Health has released a 30-minute online trainingmodule covering the fundamentals of infection prevention and
control for COVID-19 and is intended for health care workers in
all settings. It also includes COVID-19 - What is it?, signs and symptoms, keeping safe - protecting yourself and others and mythbusting.

Healthdirect Australia is working with the Australian Government Department of Health to provide information about COVID-19 to the public. They are sharing messaging and resources to help you provide evidence-based trusted information about COVID-19 to your community. These resources will be updated continually throughout this pandemic.

Healthdirect Australia has worked with the Department of Health to establish the Coronavirus Health Information Line (1800 020 080) to provide non-clinical information about COVID-19. Our healthdirect helpline (1800 022 222) is triaging people calling with symptoms. Both lines are receiving unprecedented call volumes, resulting in extended wait times for some callers. As part of the Australian Government’s health plan announced yesterday, we are expanding these helplines to be able to provide timely advice and support to everyone who needs it.

As an alternative to the helplines, answers to many questions are available on the healthdirect website coronavirus hub. Please direct your community to this hub as their first point of reference for reliable information about COVID-19. The healthdirect Symptom Checker provides self-guided triage to find out what to do next. A series of social media assets and videos are also available to download and use in your campaigns.

This fact sheet relates to a temporary six-month measure for Bulk Billed MBS Telehealth Services for doctors, nurses and mental health professionals to deliver services via telehealth, provided those services are bulk billed. The new MBS items will allow people to access essential health services in their home while they undergo self-isolation or quarantine, and reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 for vulnerable people in the community.

The DOH has also released a fact sheet providing guidance on the distribution of PPE such as Tranche 1, Surgical masks and P2/N95 respirators in PHNs.

We are sharing this important information with all of our Information Partners - feel free to share both within your community and externally to help people easily find reliable information about COVID-19.

Online training provided by Phoenix Training assisting healthcare professionals communicate with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders with hearing loss can be found here.

SARRAH Webinars 2020

SARRAH is excited to announce a series of engaging webinars for March, April and May. All SARRAH members have access to free tickets to the webinar as a part of their membership perks (contact sarrah@sarrah.org.au for the promo codes).

The Social Determinants of Attracting, Building and Retaining a Rural/Remote Health Workforce – Findings from my 2019 Churchill Fellowship trip to Canada
Dr Cath Cosgrave
Thursday 14 May 6:30pm (AEST)

Dr Cosgrave is a social scientist with internationally recognised expertise in rural health workforce (recruitment and retention). Her research specialisation is rural health workforce recruitment and retention of nursing and allied health professionals; sub-specialisations include early-career and health professionals from non-rural backgrounds. In 2018, Dr Cosgrave was awarded a Churchill Fellowship, to visit rural and remote communities in Canada to investigate community-led and engaged health workforce development approaches for the psychosocial needs of newcomer health workers. Since completing her PhD in 2016, she has been working as a research fellow at the University of Melbourne, Department of Rural Health and as an independent management consultant in rural health services and workforce planning. Dr Cosgrave has developed a ‘Whole-of-Person Retention Improvement Framework’ outlining supports for improving job and life satisfaction. Dr Cosgrave has recently completed a two-year partnership project with two rural Victorian public-health services working to support improved retention of their allied health workforce; she is currently writing up the study. Further information about the webinar can be found on this flyer.
Tickets to access this Webinar can be found here.

Webinar recording of "Experiences and Outcomes of Rural Generalist Trainees in QLD, NSW and TAS" now available!

On Thursday 19 March a group of Allied Health Rural Generalist trainees presented summaries of their service development projects. You can catch the recording here.

#SARRAH2020

SARRAH 2020 National Rural and Remote Allied Health Conference

The Organising Committee is delighted to present the SARRAH 2020 National Rural and Remote Allied Health Conference.

Hosted by SARRAH since 1995, this biennial conference is for all involved in regional, rural and remote allied health.

The Organising Committee invites you to Townsville

to hear a range of eminent speakers,

to join us as we share stories to shape the future success for remote, rural and regional allied health, and

The Federal Government has put in place emergency protocols to expedite the process of getting GPs and allied health professionals to bushfire-affected communities where they are needed most.

The Department of Health and Department of Human Services will prioritise all applications from health professionals who want to work in bushfire-affected communities. Allied health professionals can work at a new practice for up to two weeks using their existing Medicare provider number.

People wishing to provide supplies and assistance are advised to direct their enquiries to the relevant state government. Financial donations are preferred at this point, as services have been overwhelmed with donated clothing and household goods. Donations can be directed to the relevant organisation in their state:

The Victorian Bushfire Appeal;

The NSW Fire Service; or

The State Emergency Relief Fund (SA)

Emerging Minds: Community Trauma Toolkit
This toolkit contains resources to help and support adults and children before, during, and after a disaster or traumatic event. It will help you understand some of the impacts of disaster and how you can help lessen these impacts.

In the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic response, the government's focus has rightly been on our medical and nursing frontline capacity to deal with the anticipated surge in demand for acute hospital services.
Like others, SARRAH has been receiving information and contributing to processes associated with the response to the pandemic. We have been concerned that to date, the role of AHPs has been of limited scope, including:

Provision of mental health and social and emotional well-being services and supports;

Advice that allied health services are considered essential services and so able to continue;

The introduction of telehealth arrangements under bulk-billing arrangements for pre-existing MBS items, including for chronic disease management (subject to the existing consultation limits).

I know I'm preaching to the converted here when I say that allied health professionals (AHPs) are highly qualified, university-trained health professionals, with clinical expertise ranging across every health care setting, including intensive care. Growth in AHPs and their roles over recent decades has been in keeping with advances in health science and the development of specialist practice in improving health and effective treatment. Unfortunately, the capacity of the AHP workforce has not been incorporated as effectively into our health systems as the challenges facing our health systems suggest they should be. It is important, in the current situation, that the capacity and contribution of the approximately skills of these 250,000 AHPs in Australia are recognised and utilised.

Fortunately, in regard to the current response to COVID 19, the role of psychologists and other allied health professionals in mental health services is well recognised by governments as demonstrated in responding to the recent bushfires and now the mobilisation against COVID-19. However, there is much more that AHPs could do to ensure our systems are not over-stretched. The central role AHPs play in assisting people to recover after an health event, and their impact on a hospital's ability to manage a surge in demand, is often not appreciated. Without the input of AHPs to assist people to remobilise and return home safely after an admission to hospital, a patient's length of stay would be unnecessarily drawn out, with an associated high bed occupancy rate. In preparation for a pandemic, hospitals and health services should be assessing every aspect of patient flow to ensure that patients are able to return home in a timely manner, and that there are beds available for new admissions. AHPs work best as part of multi-disciplinary teams providing person-centred care working alongside doctors and nurses.

Over recent days, some jurisdictions have sought to (re-)engage (some) AHPs: for example, Victoria, in a general call for health professionals to provide essential support to doctors and nurses; and NSW, where a call for physiotherapists with previous intensive care experience resulted in over 350 received (refresher) training through the Australian Physiotherapists Association (APA). NSW Health and the APA are also offering the training to be available in other jurisdictions. Similarly, we understand the NSW Rural Doctors Network (NSWRDN) put out a call for additional volunteers to assist with the pandemic, receiving over 800 responses, several hundred of whom were AHPs. Similar reports of pharmacists and other health professionals coming out of retirement to help are increasing. It is hoped that this signals a recognition by health administrators and decision-makers that allied health professionals are an essential part of the health system's preparations for a surge in demand expected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stay well, everyone.

Cath

Upcoming SARRAH Webinar Tuesday 7 April 12pm (AEST)

The Fragile Forgotten - The Experience of Providing and Receiving Services Under the NDIS in Rural Australia
Dr Luke Wakely
Tuesday 7 April 12pm (AEST)

Dr Luke Wakely is a senior lecturer in physiotherapy at the University of Newcastle Department of Rural Health. As an APA titled paediatric physiotherapist with 20 years of clinical experience in rural Australia, he is passionate about addressing health inequity for rural communities in particular children and their families. His research focuses on the parenting of children with health issues or disability and the particular needs of rural families. Further information about the Webinar can be found on this flyer.
Tickets to access this Webinar can be found here.

Corona Virus and communication with the many Indigenous people with hearing loss - Damien Howard and Jody Barney
There are indications that changes related to the CO19 virus will compound the effect of widespread hearing loss, especially in remote communities. Hearing loss makes it more difficult to understand unfamiliar information that comes from outside agencies. In the past, these difficulties were reduced by social processes where those in the group with the best English, hearing and literacy help others understand what is being communicated. However, there is currently a huge increase in rapidly changing information that needs to be understood and social distancing and isolation means face to face social support processes will diminish.

This means it is critically important that those wishing to provide information, especially to those in remote communities, in ways to maximise it being understood and acted on. The 2017 AMA health report recommended that ‘hearing loss informed communication training be undertaken by all those working with Aboriginal people’. The changes around the CO19 Virus mean changes in contact processes also needs to be urgently considered. Poor communication outcomes will cost lives.

Damien Howard is a psychologist and a Jody Barney is Deaf Indigenous consultant who have worked for 30 years in improving communication with hearing impaired Indigenous Australians. They are working on resources for agencies and individuals to improve communication with impaired Indigenous people in the current circumstances. Up to 70% of people in remote Indigenous communities are hearing impaired.

Current Job VacanciesPhysiotherapist – Katherine Physio - Katherine
Rural Workforce Agency Northern Territory (RWA NT) are partnering with Katherine Physio to find a Physiotherapist to join their passionate Katherine based team. Katherine Physio is a community based practice who work hard to educate their patients on their condition and empower them with the tools to assist self-management. For more information visit our website.

COVID-19 Information for Allied Health Professionals
The Department of Health has released a 30-minute online trainingmodule covering the fundamentals of infection prevention and
control for COVID-19 and is intended for health care workers in
all settings. It also includes COVID-19 - What is it?, signs and symptoms, keeping safe - protecting yourself and others and mythbusting.

Healthdirect Australia is working with the Australian Government Department of Health to provide information about COVID-19 to the public. They are sharing messaging and resources to help you provide evidence-based trusted information about COVID-19 to your community. These resources will be updated continually throughout this pandemic.

Healthdirect Australia has worked with the Department of Health to establish the Coronavirus Health Information Line (1800 020 080) to provide non-clinical information about COVID-19. Our healthdirect helpline (1800 022 222) is triaging people calling with symptoms. Both lines are receiving unprecedented call volumes, resulting in extended wait times for some callers. As part of the Australian Government’s health plan announced yesterday, we are expanding these helplines to be able to provide timely advice and support to everyone who needs it.

As an alternative to the helplines, answers to many questions are available on the healthdirect website coronavirus hub. Please direct your community to this hub as their first point of reference for reliable information about COVID-19. The healthdirect Symptom Checker provides self-guided triage to find out what to do next. A series of social media assets and videos are also available to download and use in your campaigns.

This fact sheet relates to a temporary six-month measure for Bulk Billed MBS Telehealth Services for doctors, nurses and mental health professionals to deliver services via telehealth, provided those services are bulk billed. The new MBS items will allow people to access essential health services in their home while they undergo self-isolation or quarantine, and reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 for vulnerable people in the community.

The DOH has also released a fact sheet providing guidance on the distribution of PPE such as Tranche 1, Surgical masks and P2/N95 respirators in PHNs.

We are sharing this important information with all of our Information Partners - feel free to share both within your community and externally to help people easily find reliable information about COVID-19.

Online training provided by Phoenix Training assisting healthcare professionals communicate with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders with hearing loss can be found here.

SARRAH Webinars 2020

SARRAH is excited to announce a series of engaging webinars for March, April and May. All SARRAH members have access to free tickets to the webinar as a part of their membership perks (contact sarrah@sarrah.org.au for the promo codes).

The Social Determinants of Attracting, Building and Retaining a Rural/Remote Health Workforce – Findings from my 2019 Churchill Fellowship trip to Canada
Dr Cath Cosgrave
Thursday 14 May 6:30pm (AEST)

Dr Cosgrave is a social scientist with internationally recognised expertise in rural health workforce (recruitment and retention). Her research specialisation is rural health workforce recruitment and retention of nursing and allied health professionals; sub-specialisations include early-career and health professionals from non-rural backgrounds. In 2018, Dr Cosgrave was awarded a Churchill Fellowship, to visit rural and remote communities in Canada to investigate community-led and engaged health workforce development approaches for the psychosocial needs of newcomer health workers. Since completing her PhD in 2016, she has been working as a research fellow at the University of Melbourne, Department of Rural Health and as an independent management consultant in rural health services and workforce planning. Dr Cosgrave has developed a ‘Whole-of-Person Retention Improvement Framework’ outlining supports for improving job and life satisfaction. Dr Cosgrave has recently completed a two-year partnership project with two rural Victorian public-health services working to support improved retention of their allied health workforce; she is currently writing up the study. Further information about the webinar can be found on this flyer.
Tickets to access this Webinar can be found here.

Webinar recording of "Experiences and Outcomes of Rural Generalist Trainees in QLD, NSW and TAS" now available!

On Thursday 19 March a group of Allied Health Rural Generalist trainees presented summaries of their service development projects. You can catch the recording here.

#SARRAH2020

SARRAH 2020 National Rural and Remote Allied Health Conference

The Organising Committee is delighted to present the SARRAH 2020 National Rural and Remote Allied Health Conference.

Hosted by SARRAH since 1995, this biennial conference is for all involved in regional, rural and remote allied health.

The Organising Committee invites you to Townsville

to hear a range of eminent speakers,

to join us as we share stories to shape the future success for remote, rural and regional allied health, and

The Federal Government has put in place emergency protocols to expedite the process of getting GPs and allied health professionals to bushfire-affected communities where they are needed most.

The Department of Health and Department of Human Services will prioritise all applications from health professionals who want to work in bushfire-affected communities. Allied health professionals can work at a new practice for up to two weeks using their existing Medicare provider number.

People wishing to provide supplies and assistance are advised to direct their enquiries to the relevant state government. Financial donations are preferred at this point, as services have been overwhelmed with donated clothing and household goods. Donations can be directed to the relevant organisation in their state:

The Victorian Bushfire Appeal;

The NSW Fire Service; or

The State Emergency Relief Fund (SA)

Emerging Minds: Community Trauma Toolkit
This toolkit contains resources to help and support adults and children before, during, and after a disaster or traumatic event. It will help you understand some of the impacts of disaster and how you can help lessen these impacts.

In the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic response, the government's focus has rightly been on our medical and nursing frontline capacity to deal with the anticipated surge in demand for acute hospital services.
Like others, SARRAH has been receiving information and contributing to processes associated with the response to the pandemic. We have been concerned that to date, the role of AHPs has been of limited scope, including:

Provision of mental health and social and emotional well-being services and supports;

Advice that allied health services are considered essential services and so able to continue;

The introduction of telehealth arrangements under bulk-billing arrangements for pre-existing MBS items, including for chronic disease management (subject to the existing consultation limits).

I know I'm preaching to the converted here when I say that allied health professionals (AHPs) are highly qualified, university-trained health professionals, with clinical expertise ranging across every health care setting, including intensive care. Growth in AHPs and their roles over recent decades has been in keeping with advances in health science and the development of specialist practice in improving health and effective treatment. Unfortunately, the capacity of the AHP workforce has not been incorporated as effectively into our health systems as the challenges facing our health systems suggest they should be. It is important, in the current situation, that the capacity and contribution of the approximately skills of these 250,000 AHPs in Australia are recognised and utilised.

Fortunately, in regard to the current response to COVID 19, the role of psychologists and other allied health professionals in mental health services is well recognised by governments as demonstrated in responding to the recent bushfires and now the mobilisation against COVID-19. However, there is much more that AHPs could do to ensure our systems are not over-stretched. The central role AHPs play in assisting people to recover after an health event, and their impact on a hospital's ability to manage a surge in demand, is often not appreciated. Without the input of AHPs to assist people to remobilise and return home safely after an admission to hospital, a patient's length of stay would be unnecessarily drawn out, with an associated high bed occupancy rate. In preparation for a pandemic, hospitals and health services should be assessing every aspect of patient flow to ensure that patients are able to return home in a timely manner, and that there are beds available for new admissions. AHPs work best as part of multi-disciplinary teams providing person-centred care working alongside doctors and nurses.

Over recent days, some jurisdictions have sought to (re-)engage (some) AHPs: for example, Victoria, in a general call for health professionals to provide essential support to doctors and nurses; and NSW, where a call for physiotherapists with previous intensive care experience resulted in over 350 received (refresher) training through the Australian Physiotherapists Association (APA). NSW Health and the APA are also offering the training to be available in other jurisdictions. Similarly, we understand the NSW Rural Doctors Network (NSWRDN) put out a call for additional volunteers to assist with the pandemic, receiving over 800 responses, several hundred of whom were AHPs. Similar reports of pharmacists and other health professionals coming out of retirement to help are increasing. It is hoped that this signals a recognition by health administrators and decision-makers that allied health professionals are an essential part of the health system's preparations for a surge in demand expected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stay well, everyone.

Cath

Upcoming SARRAH Webinar Tuesday 7 April 12pm (AEST)

The Fragile Forgotten - The Experience of Providing and Receiving Services Under the NDIS in Rural Australia
Dr Luke Wakely
Tuesday 7 April 12pm (AEST)

Dr Luke Wakely is a senior lecturer in physiotherapy at the University of Newcastle Department of Rural Health. As an APA titled paediatric physiotherapist with 20 years of clinical experience in rural Australia, he is passionate about addressing health inequity for rural communities in particular children and their families. His research focuses on the parenting of children with health issues or disability and the particular needs of rural families. Further information about the Webinar can be found on this flyer.
Tickets to access this Webinar can be found here.

Corona Virus and communication with the many Indigenous people with hearing loss - Damien Howard and Jody Barney
There are indications that changes related to the CO19 virus will compound the effect of widespread hearing loss, especially in remote communities. Hearing loss makes it more difficult to understand unfamiliar information that comes from outside agencies. In the past, these difficulties were reduced by social processes where those in the group with the best English, hearing and literacy help others understand what is being communicated. However, there is currently a huge increase in rapidly changing information that needs to be understood and social distancing and isolation means face to face social support processes will diminish.

This means it is critically important that those wishing to provide information, especially to those in remote communities, in ways to maximise it being understood and acted on. The 2017 AMA health report recommended that ‘hearing loss informed communication training be undertaken by all those working with Aboriginal people’. The changes around the CO19 Virus mean changes in contact processes also needs to be urgently considered. Poor communication outcomes will cost lives.

Damien Howard is a psychologist and a Jody Barney is Deaf Indigenous consultant who have worked for 30 years in improving communication with hearing impaired Indigenous Australians. They are working on resources for agencies and individuals to improve communication with impaired Indigenous people in the current circumstances. Up to 70% of people in remote Indigenous communities are hearing impaired.

Current Job VacanciesPhysiotherapist – Katherine Physio - Katherine
Rural Workforce Agency Northern Territory (RWA NT) are partnering with Katherine Physio to find a Physiotherapist to join their passionate Katherine based team. Katherine Physio is a community based practice who work hard to educate their patients on their condition and empower them with the tools to assist self-management. For more information visit our website.

COVID-19 Information for Allied Health Professionals
The Department of Health has released a 30-minute online trainingmodule covering the fundamentals of infection prevention and
control for COVID-19 and is intended for health care workers in
all settings. It also includes COVID-19 - What is it?, signs and symptoms, keeping safe - protecting yourself and others and mythbusting.

Healthdirect Australia is working with the Australian Government Department of Health to provide information about COVID-19 to the public. They are sharing messaging and resources to help you provide evidence-based trusted information about COVID-19 to your community. These resources will be updated continually throughout this pandemic.

Healthdirect Australia has worked with the Department of Health to establish the Coronavirus Health Information Line (1800 020 080) to provide non-clinical information about COVID-19. Our healthdirect helpline (1800 022 222) is triaging people calling with symptoms. Both lines are receiving unprecedented call volumes, resulting in extended wait times for some callers. As part of the Australian Government’s health plan announced yesterday, we are expanding these helplines to be able to provide timely advice and support to everyone who needs it.

As an alternative to the helplines, answers to many questions are available on the healthdirect website coronavirus hub. Please direct your community to this hub as their first point of reference for reliable information about COVID-19. The healthdirect Symptom Checker provides self-guided triage to find out what to do next. A series of social media assets and videos are also available to download and use in your campaigns.

This fact sheet relates to a temporary six-month measure for Bulk Billed MBS Telehealth Services for doctors, nurses and mental health professionals to deliver services via telehealth, provided those services are bulk billed. The new MBS items will allow people to access essential health services in their home while they undergo self-isolation or quarantine, and reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 for vulnerable people in the community.

The DOH has also released a fact sheet providing guidance on the distribution of PPE such as Tranche 1, Surgical masks and P2/N95 respirators in PHNs.

We are sharing this important information with all of our Information Partners - feel free to share both within your community and externally to help people easily find reliable information about COVID-19.

Online training provided by Phoenix Training assisting healthcare professionals communicate with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders with hearing loss can be found here.

SARRAH Webinars 2020

SARRAH is excited to announce a series of engaging webinars for March, April and May. All SARRAH members have access to free tickets to the webinar as a part of their membership perks (contact sarrah@sarrah.org.au for the promo codes).

The Social Determinants of Attracting, Building and Retaining a Rural/Remote Health Workforce – Findings from my 2019 Churchill Fellowship trip to Canada
Dr Cath Cosgrave
Thursday 14 May 6:30pm (AEST)

Dr Cosgrave is a social scientist with internationally recognised expertise in rural health workforce (recruitment and retention). Her research specialisation is rural health workforce recruitment and retention of nursing and allied health professionals; sub-specialisations include early-career and health professionals from non-rural backgrounds. In 2018, Dr Cosgrave was awarded a Churchill Fellowship, to visit rural and remote communities in Canada to investigate community-led and engaged health workforce development approaches for the psychosocial needs of newcomer health workers. Since completing her PhD in 2016, she has been working as a research fellow at the University of Melbourne, Department of Rural Health and as an independent management consultant in rural health services and workforce planning. Dr Cosgrave has developed a ‘Whole-of-Person Retention Improvement Framework’ outlining supports for improving job and life satisfaction. Dr Cosgrave has recently completed a two-year partnership project with two rural Victorian public-health services working to support improved retention of their allied health workforce; she is currently writing up the study. Further information about the webinar can be found on this flyer.
Tickets to access this Webinar can be found here.

Webinar recording of "Experiences and Outcomes of Rural Generalist Trainees in QLD, NSW and TAS" now available!

On Thursday 19 March a group of Allied Health Rural Generalist trainees presented summaries of their service development projects. You can catch the recording here.

#SARRAH2020

SARRAH 2020 National Rural and Remote Allied Health Conference

The Organising Committee is delighted to present the SARRAH 2020 National Rural and Remote Allied Health Conference.

Hosted by SARRAH since 1995, this biennial conference is for all involved in regional, rural and remote allied health.

The Organising Committee invites you to Townsville

to hear a range of eminent speakers,

to join us as we share stories to shape the future success for remote, rural and regional allied health, and